


All I Ask Of You

by alyciatrash



Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux, Phantom of the Opera (2004), Phantom of the Opera - Lloyd Webber
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Erik is a Sweetheart, F/M, Happy Ending, I didn't like the ending so here, Love Never Dies doesn't happen, Phantom of the Opera - Freeform, erik's just sad, song lyrics incorporated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 17:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20624642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyciatrash/pseuds/alyciatrash
Summary: Basically a rewrite of the ending of the musical, 'cause I was pissed about Christine leaving Erik.--Alternate take on the POTO ending, starting when Christine and Erik reach the lair again.





	All I Ask Of You

Christine is thrown into her Angel's dark lair with more force than she expects from the man her Angel. A dark red handprint starts to form on the wrist he had grasped throughout their entire journey to the darkness of the place he calls home.

"Angel, I beg you, calm down!" Christine gasps for air as finally they've stopped rushing through the hidden corridors of the Opera Populaire. Instead of listening to her, he runs up to his organ to find the last article of clothing he wants Christine to wear, a veil. He had already forced her into a large white wedding dress, he must be planning the ceremony to take place immediately.

Christine's anger gets the better of her as she turns to him, "So what, you've gorged yourself at last in your lust for blood, so now you want me to be prey to your lust for flesh?"

She looks at her angel, who looks distraught. Whether this is because of the way he has handled the young soprano or out of remorse for his actions, Christine doesn't know. His eyes glued to his feet, the dreaded Phantom struggles to come up with an answer. 

"I am not an angel." Is all the man, if she can call him that in this moment, responds with. Christine snorts and turns her back on him. "My name is Erik." He softly whispers behind her.

Christine glances back at the man that confuses her so and glances around the room she had only seen once before. Might as well be a cave, it's so dark and cold, she thinks while a shiver runs through her body. 

"Quite horrific, is it not?" finally, the Angel speaks, "When the people of Paris got a glance of this wicked face, Erik was hounded out by everyone. Forced to spend his life in this cold and dismal place."

"Erik." Christine tries out the name, making Erik wince violently.

"I made a mistake telling you, that name shall not be spoken. It hasn't been spoken since my mother decided a child as ghastly as this should not be worthy of a name." He yanks Christine towards the middle of his room.

"Er- Angel… of course you're worthy of your name, that's-" Christine tries, sadness for the man before her filling her eyes.

"Pity comes too late. It's time to accept your fate, my dear, an eternity of this face before your eyes." He releases her arm and straightens out the veil which flows around her body.

"This haunted face holds no horror for me now," Christine sees a flicker of emotion in the eyes of her Angel, her Erik. She raises the hand, which now harbours his engagement ring, and lightly touches his face, making him draw back out of reflex. "it's-" The suddenly cold look in the man's eyes as his focus shifts to something behind her make Christine stop her sentence.

"Wait! I think, my dear, we have a guest." Erik takes several steps forward and Christine spins her body around.

"Raoul!" Christine yelps as she recognises the man standing before them. The yelp is not necessarily one of relief, as much as it is one of shock. How had he even managed to follow them down here? 

"Free her, you demon!" Raoul yells at the man standing before her with his back turned to her. "I love her! Does that mean nothing to you?" She sees his shoulders freeze as the man speaks the three dreaded words.

"Raoul, please just leave, it's useless." Christine attempts to make the foolish man understand that she shall never leave this place, she can't anymore. 

"Do you not have any pity in your soul? No compassion?" The man does not seem to listen to what his fiancée is trying to make clear to him. Christine cannot see her Angel's face, but she knows very well that his eyes light up with anger at the words being spoken to him. 

"How dare you ask for compassion? Ever since I came to be on this world, I have not received an ounce of this so-called compassion, yet you think you are entitled to it now?" More fierily spoken words Christine has never heard from her teacher. If Raoul isn't careful, all this fire in Erik's soul shall be used against him. 

"At least let me see her." Raoul tries to get his way still. Erik turns around to glance at the woman who possesses his heart and walks around her, seemingly considering the request of the man who wishes to marry her also. Christine stare ahead, looking to Raoul who she knows desperately wishes to run up to her.

"Be my guest." 

Raoul leaps forward and holds Christine in his arms, thinking she must be terrified of the man who dragged her back to his home, when in fact she just feel remorse for the two-faced man. Christine's knees buckle under the force with which Raoul grabbed her, forcing her to get down on the floor while he follows. Trying to calm her already steady heartbeat, Raoul whispers comforting words into her ear and strokes her hair. 

"Do you see now? I would never harm my Christine." Erik says, voice somehow laced with both anger and affection, one emotion for each of the pair knelt down on the floor. Raoul just looks up in anger to say that Christine is not his, and Christine sees that he wishes nothing more than to attack the man who took his beloved fiancée. Instead, Christine grabs Raoul's face and forces him to make eye contact with her. Neither one of them notices Erik creeping around to Raoul's back, Raoul too lost in his fiancée's eyes and Christine too busy trying to keep the man from fleeing her arms to hurt her teacher, until suddenly the Punjab Lasso has found its way around Raoul's neck. 

"Erik!" Christine screams when he drags a struggling Raoul back by the rope around the man's neck and pulls it up just enough for Raoul to have to gasp for air. Erik immediately spins back around and strides up to Christine, who's still on the floor, too shocked by this crude action to move.

"The choice is yours now, my dear. All you have to do to win his life is vow to stay with me, for all eternity. Start a new life with me, Christine, buy his freedom with your love." Erik reaches out and grabs both of Christine's thin arms. There's nothing more he wishes than for those arms to be around him, and to never let him go. 

"Why make her lie to you to save me?" Raoul yells out, fear of his fiancée choosing another man over him for his sake filling his voice. "Christine, please forgive me." He gasps and stares at the woman he thought was going to be his wife.

"All three of us know it would not be lying, you foolish boy." Erik bites back with a fiery gaze. Raoul falls silent as he realises that, indeed, this dreadful phantom is right. "This is the point of no return, Christine. Make your choice." He releases her and she falls back down on the floor, bracing herself with her hands. She can't believe the man who once inspired her voice would do something as cruel as the action he is undertaking now. 

"Angel, please, you know this is not you, I know this is not you! I beg you, release the Vicomte, please, dear Angel!" Christine looks up at the man she so admires with tears streaking the ivory skin of her cheeks. Erik simply shakes his head and stares right back into her eyes, pain pouring out of his own, begging her to make her choice. "You.. you deceived me." She whispers out of pure agony for having another man's life in her hands. "I gave my mind to you, to your music, but I did so blindly." A sob escaped her, wrecking through her entire figure, and she tears the veil Erik placed there off her head.

Erik sucked in a sharp breath, making Christine look up at him. She sees his entire face contort in pain and hears him repeat the last word she said, "Blindly." Christine shuts her eyes forcefully as she realises how her words must have come across on him.

"Erik, please, that's not-" "Stop calling me that! Make your choice, Christine." Erik turns away to pick up the veil from the floor and clutches it close to his chest. She turns to Raoul, who in turn shakes his head signaling for her to not give in to this monster, this phantom of the opera. Still, when she looks back at the hunched man standing a few feet away from her, she knows what her choice must be.

"You pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life must you have had?" She slowly gets up from the ground and takes a first step towards the man who taught her how to control her voice. "God give me courage to show you that you are not alone." Erik turns around, a confused look on his face caused by her words. Before he has the time to respond, her lips have found their way to his. His brain barely lets him process what is happening, the kiss having ended before he could even move his body. Christine flings her arms around him, pressing close to the strong body of the man whose voice shall never leave her mind. When she reaches back up to press her lips against Erik's once more, his brain allows him to reciprocate and he kisses her back, cherishing every second.

Slowly, he pulls away from the young woman holding onto him. He staggers back, his mind racing as well as his heart. Christine stares deeply into his eyes, pledging herself to him without saying the words. 

He glances around his lair, letting his eyes fall on the boy still struggling to breathe with the noose around his neck. Knowing he must let him go, he stumbles over to his organ to grab a candle. She chose me, with every step he takes those words echo through his brain, she chose me. He comes to a standstill next to the man, defiantly staring at the man who is to free him or kill him. Erik looks to Christine, who is breathlessly watching the man she is to spend her life with glide across the room. He knows then, that she does not deserve this. She does not deserve a life kept away from the human world. She does not deserve to be forced to spend her days with a man she only chose out of obligation. He strikes upward with the candle and releases Raoul from his strangling hold. 

"Take her…" Erik whispers, pain coursing through every vein in his body. "Go now, take her away from here!" He booms when the young man does not seem to move, just staring at the man disbelievingly. He stumbles forward and takes Christine in his arms, who immediately pulls him toward the exit. She's crying, Erik realises when he sees her shoulders shake. This only fires up the need he has to get her out of his home. "Promise never to tell anyone about me. Go now! Go and leave me!" He yells with terror and pain pouring from his words. He nearly sounds animalistic, but he does not care for he just wants Christine to leave this place and lead her life. He falls to the floor as he watches her walk out of his lair and out of his life. The sound of all the emotions in Erik's voice make Christine let out a wail of her own as she moves to take Raoul from the dark lair.

Erik drags his body over to the music box in the shape of a monkey. After winding it up, the soft melody he knows so well sounds throughout the place he calls home. 

Masquerade  
Paper faces on parade  
Masquerade

"Hide your face so the world.. will never find you." Erik sighs out and feels the tears prick his eyes, waiting to be allowed out. He knows he can not keep them at bay and simply lets go.

The sound of the music box slows and quiets down as Erik sits on the floor, softly sobbing. "Christine.." He whispers into the empty room, when the sound of something behind him makes him quiet down. He glances around and sees her standing there, his angel of music. Quickly, he gets up and straightens out his clothes. He repeats her name, slightly louder than the last time.

He takes in her face, her beautiful face which is contorted by the despair she's feeling. Painstakingly slowly, Christine raises her hand and holds out the ring he gave her on stage a short while earlier.

He extends his hand and takes the offending piece of metal from her delicate hands. He watches her as she bends down, crying desperately, and presses a sweet kiss to his hand. This act of kindness shuts off all sense in Erik's brain as he feels both love and pain stab through his heart.

"Christine... I love you." Erik says carefully, almost lyrically. His words make the young woman cry even more, but still she turns to walk out of the place he calls home. Another painful jab pierces Erik as he watches the woman who once captured his music like no one else could walk away from him. 

Slowly, Christine moves up the stairs, before turning around to look at her maestro and angel for seemingly the last time. He nods silently, letting her know it's okay, that he understands, making her turn her back on him once more. Still, understanding does not make pain fade, and this pain makes him drop to his knees while clinging to the veil which had fallen to the ground.

Christine doesn't move, however. For a moment, she just stands still on the staircase, looking down, before shaking her head ever so slightly. With a deep breath, she whispers, "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime."

Raoul appears from around the corner, as if summoned by the soft words, and extends his hand to the woman he vowed to marry someday, "Christine." When she does nothing, he tilts his head and tries to take her hand in his own.

"No," she looks him in the eyes apologetically and turns around, looking at the man who has lived his entire life without knowing the love of another person. "Say the word and I will follow you." 

Christine slowly slides back down the stairs, ignoring Raoul's quiet protests. Erik scoots back a few inches when Christine takes small steps toward him, a small smile comes over her face. When she reaches him, she kneels in front of him and delicately places her hand on her Angel's shoulder.

"Share each day with me, each night, each morning." She looks deep into his eyes, searching for whatever emotions he might be feeling now. She is met with disbelief and deep adoration staring back at her. "Anywhere you go, let me go too." Erik reaches up and places his hand on hers hand still resting on his shoulder. "Love me, that's all I ask of you." She strokes his cheek as he lets his eyes wander to the ground and wipes the stray tear that falls from her beloved Angel's eye.

"Do.. do you love me, Christine?" Erik carefully glances back up at her, doubt in his dark eyes.

"Oh Erik, you know I do." She answers, threading her fingers through those of the man in front of her once more. He sucks in a sharp breath and runs his thumb over her knuckles.

"And you wish to stay with me? Erik?" The name he was given comes out hesitantly. He is sure he is dreaming, or that Christine is going to run up the stairs to chase after the boy who had stalked off after his ex-fiancée's heartfelt confession.

Instead, Christine smiles adoringly at her Angel and grabs his other hand. Slowly, she pries his fingers open and takes the ring she placed there just minutes before from him. She holds the ring out and whispers, "Ask me again." Erik's eyes widen and he carefully takes the ring from the woman's slender hand. He looks once more at the young soprano for confirmation, and when she nods he clears his throat. 

"Christine, mon ange… will you save me from my solitude by doing me the honor of being my wife? Will you stay with me, now and always?" Emotion pours from Erik's soft words. He holds his breath, for he is still scared she will run off, despite all the loving words she has spoken to him.

A stunning smile takes over Christine's face as she nods, "I will follow you wherever you wish to go, forever, my dear Angel." Tears start falling from their eyes as Erik delicately takes his fiancée's hand and slips his engagement ring back onto her finger. 

Slowly, the young woman leans into her maestro and lover and places a small hand on each side of his face. Erik shuts his eyes, not used to the touches his new fiancée places on him, but he welcomes them nonetheless. Softly, he feels Christine's lips graze his in another silent promise never to leave the man again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this! I basically put this together in a day 'cause I watched the musical again and got frustrated so thanks for putting up with it! Hope you enjoyed this, please leave a comment to let me know what you think :)


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